Many devices employing electrochemical cells require a higher energy capacity and/or a higher voltage than can be satisfactorily supplied by a single cell. Higher voltages and energy capacities have been achieved by electrically interconnecting several cells. The interconnected cells can be contained within the device. Preferably the cells are contained within a separate battery housing, which housing is then connected to the device.
Many useful housings have been developed to contain the cells. The housing facilitate the handling of a plurality of cells by permitting them to be handled as a single unit. The housings further act to protect the cells from damage during handling and use, and serve as a base for means for terminating the battery.
Previously known battery housings, even though useful, have had many drawbacks. Chief among them, is the high manufacturing costs, relative to the cost of the cells. Expensive battery housings are particularly undesirable in primary batteries, which are intended as disposible items. High costs result from numerous components, many of which are relatively expensive to manufacture, and high labor costs generated by the necessity of employing skilled labor in the assembly of the numerous components. The means for terminating the battery add to the cost of the housings. The means have been composed generally of many parts with those parts requiring many manual steps for assembly into the housings.
Many heretofore known battery housings have suffered from unacceptable high rates of mechanical and electrical failure. The various internal structures, seams and terminals of the housings were subject to failure, principally due to the many mechanical forces applied to them by the cells during battery handling and use. These forces were most profound in housings containing large cells, whose weight amplified the destructive mechanical forces applied to the battery housings.
The internal electrical connections, (between cells, and from cells to external terminals) were subject to opening, or short circuiting. The electrical connections between the cells and the battery housing terminals generally cannot be eliminated. Further, a long internal conductor is required in housings having stacked cells and terminals, which for user convenience, are in close proximity to each other at one end of the housing. This long conductor, which electrically connects the far end of the cell stack and one terminal, is adjacent to all the cells of the battery. The failure of the insulation between the cells and the conductor will short circuit the battery, and possibly damage the cells. The failure of the conductor will cause the battery to cease functioning.